To make our cities sustainable is one of today's major challenges. The complexity of this task requires suitable planning tools. The aim of this paper is to present a hierarchical modelling approach to assess the effects of transport and land use projects and instruments. First a brief definition of the overall objective sustainability is given. This is followed by the description of the suggested hierarchical approach. A strategic, dynamic land use and transport interaction model builds the basis and is linked to models on a different spatial and functional level. A case study covering the Spanish region of Madrid ('Comunidad de Madrid') was selected to demonstrate the applicability. In particular the effects of the public transport infrastructure projects, the extension of the metro line number 9 and bus lanes on all radial highways, should be assessed. It is demonstrated that the suggested approach is applicable and suitable. The overall effect of the metro line extension and the bus lanes is positive. Nevertheless their contribution to a sustainable urban region is limited. Comprehensive strategies are needed to achieve the objective of sustainability. It could be shown that the projects can even have some negative local effects in the long term.